on account of i'm the lazy half...

i haven't had a moment to post lately...what with the christmas and the cleaning and the cooking and the shopping and the...

but my brilliant husband is off this week. not only has he kept the house clean, but he also cleaned out the garage.

when he wasn't putting gold stars on his chore chart, he launched his brand-new blog: eat, drink and be merryman. because if there's one thing this family does well, it's eat. head on over and check it out.

happy new year, y'all!

bits and pieces

i am off today. my (fantastic) boss knew that i was just about to break into pieces and highly suggested all week that i take some time off for me. when i finally dug out from beneath a mountain of work, i could see that, yes, i could use a day off and i didn't have any meetings on friday, so here i am.

i feel a tiny bit guilty...ok, a big bit guilty... because my family is all at the hospital with my dad. he's recovering from a new cancer treatment. there's really not a whole lot i can do for them other than pray. an extra body gets in the way when you're in a semi-private room. but the good news is his doctor thinks this treatment is just the thing to kick-start the killing of more of the cancer in his liver.

jon is in atlanta with sweet sleep. i have been alone all day, and here's what i've done: enrolled in my benefits at work. took max on a long walk. drove to starbucks and was A.PALLED to find out that a triple-grande now costs $5.41. i will NOT be going back there for a while. came home and read martha stewart on my front porch in a rocking chair, drinking my million-dollar-java. and then. i tackled the "spare room."

when jon and i bought this house, we had very specific purposes for every room except one. the "nursery." we are pretty sure we want babies, but really haven't felt God specifically show us that that's the road he wants us walking. so, until he does, we have a spare room that houses the lives that jon and i led before we were married.

there are boxes and boxes of CDs, books, journals, sheet music, pictures. there are paintings and framed art that we've never hung. there are two bases to our washer and dryer. there are 43 pairs of old flip-flops. we've attempted to clean it out before, but basically, we just rearranged the crap. pardon the harsh language, but if you know me at all, i don't dig clutter. at all. this was that one room that we lock when company comes over.

most of you know that after college, i moved to new jersey to nanny for a fantastic family with three older kids. the boxes upstairs hold many of the memories i have of those beautiful kiddos. man, do i miss them. there are approximately 72 journals from that time that mostly have the first three pages filled out...the subject matter is generally (1) i'm homesick (2) i wish jon would hurry up and ask me to marry him and (3) lists. but mostly...it's the second. :)

there was also a bulletin board. the bulletin board hung in my nanny-room in new jersey right beside my bed. it's the kind with the criss-cross ribbon that you tuck things in. here is what i found tucked in:

let me break this down for you:

* 2 tickets from shrek 2

(the movie jon and i took my nanny-kids to immediately following his marriage proposal...the proposal that i didn't answer until after that movie...and dinner...and a train ride into the city. poor guy.).

* 1 ticket stub from a john mayer / counting crows concert in jersey

(if memory serves, this was the only concert i ever attended by myself. and it was awesome).

* 1 ticket stub from matchbox 20 in little rock.

(i flew all the way to little rock to see rob thomas with my friend hannah and her then boyfriend, clint. i bought a one-shouldered top and pink MAC eyeshadow so i could have "come hither eyes" and hannah says she did sit-ups for a week).

* 1 ticket stub from matchbox 20 in jersey.

(notice it was less than a month after the little rock show. i was surely a freak. a freak that had cash to burn).

* 1 disney world and 1 universal ticket

(jon and i visited orlando on july 4th weekend after he proposed to celebrate our engagement...despite the wonderful places we've gone together, this might have been my favorite vacation).

i love walking down memory lane. thanks for indulging me.

so many things.

i am officially done with the 4th qtr rally. some companies do quarterly meetings. mine does "rallies." at my job, well..they're my job. yesterday, we did ours. and it was pretty good. i will try to post pictures tomorrow. but it's the reason why i've been unable to blog for a bit.

things are good at the merryman household. jon is the happiest i've seen him with his job in a year or so. he's got some good new challenges and he (as always) will be amazing at it.

dennis won second place at an art competition. good news: he won second place. bad news: because i've been working so much lately, i saw his entry this morning...and i thought about using a post-it-note to write, "great job!" this is not OK. and i was sure to talk about his good job tonight at dinner.

on that note..we decided to use a dinner a'fare this month for our dinners. and it has changed. my. life. we've used them before, but i think they've upped their game. every meal is yummy. and we saved on our budget. it is such a weird thing for 3 adults to eat. if you make a full recipe there are leftovers...but if you half a meal for 6, one of you (namely the teenager) feels hungry afterwards. so tough are my life-choices.

got word from my momma today that my dad goes in for an alternate treatment next week. after his second round of chemo, his tumor has (slightly) grown. his chemo embolation is next thursday. i totally guessed at what that means...funny thing is, my mom believed me. have you ever wished that everyone believed you like your mom believes you? that was a side-note. please pray that the treatment shrinks his tumor unbelievably. that's what i'm praying.

tonight, i'm just thankful to be watching the cma's and glee and then the crazy triple CSI series alternately. how great is it to have a family?

it starts.

jessica and i used to have a nintendo 64 that we LOVED. no really - spent hours playing it. one of our favorite games was the lion king. and at the beginning of it, simba's dad would say "it starts." anyway. random fact.

this morning, dennis drove to school all by himself. i was a nervous wreck. i woke up at the crack of dawn and made a sausage lentil soup to go in the crock pot because i knew i wouldn't be able to sleep.

dennis came downstairs and i gave him the "your cellphone must be off when you drive" speech. the rule is that he has to call us before he leaves, turn it off, drive to the destination, turn it on and call us.

well, he just called. i am worry-free until 3 p.m. when he calls to let us know he's on his way home.

i am not ready for this.

October in Paris

Hopefully you love a good Dennis story as much as I do, cause this one made me smile.

So Dennis has been in Disney World since last Thursday with his Mass Media class from his arts magnet. I realize this is way cooler than anything my high school every did and I'm pretty sure that goes for you, too. :)

When I left for Dallas last Sunday to tell childrens ministers about orphans, Dennis reminded me this would be the longest we have been apart since he came home from Moldova. I didn't think much about it, but I miss him... And I love that this is home for me and for him.

So I called him today, because I miss him, and wanted to make sure he wasn't doing drugs in Disney World with those hooligans he goes to school with. I know if my dad would have called on a school trip I would have been mortified - no news is good news, right?

Here's what transpired.

"Hello?" He says in a muffled, slurred voice. "Jon?"

"Yes - it's me."

"Jon, is that you?"

"Yes! It's me!" I say loudly to my foreign child. "Where are you?"

"I'm in Paris!" He says... (I giggle to myself)

"In Paris, huh - you must be in Epcot?"

"Yes, I loooove Dis-uh-ney Whirrrled!" (I'm positive that is how you phonetically say how he says Disney World.) "It is so amazing - everything they do visually is amazing - I'm watching painters paint on the street! Like in Paris! And today I went to Ireland and heard Irish music and they have a CD of all the music from all the countries and I will buy that one for sure!" (He's had this crazy obsession with celtic music - I think I mentioned that before. He calls is - Sell-tic and I make him say Kel-tic.) He listens to it as I teach him to drive... Kind of makes me crazy... :)

My next question, since his speech is fast and slurred is, "You haven't been doing any drugs, have you?"

He says: "No, that part of the park is closed." :) (He gets that sarcasm from me - it's hereditary.) :)

"Oh - for renovations, right?" I jest - and he agrees. :)

I hear kids in the background... "So, what are you doing now?"

"We are walking to the pastry! It is amazing!" he says.

I don't correct him with patisserie -- because I picture him walking towards a huge pastry and it makes me laugh. I ask, "So are you overwhelmed?"

"Yes." He says. "But in a good way. I love Dis-uh-ney Whirrrled. But I miss you. How are you? How is home? How is Emily? How is Max?"

After answering his questions, I let him go - to enjoy his last night in Disney World with his friends because, as he told me, he'll be home tomorrow, well not really tomorrow, but he leaves tomorrow and then he will see me. (He gets home Thursday afternoon.) :)

I can't wait to hear the stories, see the pictures, and hear about his trip. It's almost his birthday and in these past almost 2 years he's seen more and done more than I know he could have ever imagined. The memories that would have been heartache and struggle are instead memories of mickey mouse shaped ice cream bars and october in paris - in Dis-uh-hey Whirrled.

Parenting an adopted teenager is a wild ride but one I recommend. It can't be any worse that the Tower of Terror - and when it resembles that, I need to remind myself that if it wasn't for us, for God calling us to adopt Dennis, and for this sweet boy that came into our lives - we'd never have Paris.

driving miss emily

so, jon's travelling this week. i hate it when he travels. sometimes when he leaves, i have this feeling of "ahhh. alone time," for about 3 seconds and then i remember that it's lonely being alone.

jon is the point person for getting dennis to school. i'm not sure how i wiggled out of it, but that's one duty that he just took. with that, he's pretty much taken on the job of teaching dennis to drive.

when jon left on sunday morning, i thought, "hey, let's see how well dennis is progressing. i'll let him take me to church." and that did not go so well. i got to thinking that big d is a little nervous driving me around. he kind of drifts into other lanes when he's driving. he's not so good with the lane changes. and he doesn't really multi-task that well. like he can't turn on the wipers without riding the brake.

anyway, so yesterday, he's driving home from school and i notice that he's holding his hands in front of the a/c. hmmm. he does it just about every time he's at a stop light.

and a big tahoe-suburban thing pulled right in front of us. without even thinking, d just swoops into the next lane, avoiding a collision. my first words were, "good job." and then: "did you check behind you before you switched lanes?" and dennis says..."no." at this point, i feel my heart get real big inside my chest. and my breathing was pretty shallow.

and then he stops at the light and holds his hands up in front of the vent. and he says:

"my hands get sweaty when i'm nervous."

and i almost wet my pants as i suppressed my laughter.

today, after school, i'm going to take him somewhere to teach him not to turn so wide. seriously, it's like he's parking an El Camino. only he drives a toyota.

nervous energy

i have had this perpetual sense of nervousness for the past couple of weeks. do you know the feeling? my stomach feels like it has a balloon inside it that keeps inflating and deflating. my heart won't settle down. my palms are sweaty. i kind of want to cry. all the time.

i'm not sure what it is.

over the past couple of years i've gotten really good at managing stress. i suppose it has to do with the adoption and new job and working through the family cancer. but for some reason, i've lost that levelheadedness.

there were a couple of years when jon and i first got married that i recognized this inability to deal with stress, and promptly took pills to relieve it. they worked. sort of. they made me gain tons of weight, along with some other fun side effects, and jon and i decided that it might be a good idea to lay off the pills.

and i was fine! without the meds, i could handle what life threw at me and generally be pretty fun to be around.

but i feel it coming on again. maybe it's because dennis will be driving alone in 2 short weeks. maybe it's because i feel marginally overwhelmed at work. maybe its because i miss my family.

i know this post is out of character, but i just needed to get it off my chest.

thanks for letting me vent.

isn't he lovely? isn't he wonderful?

i just wanted to take a moment and brag on my husband.

1. when i came home yesterday, he had picked up the house.

2. after a particularly rough morning this week, he drove home, picked up my phone that i had forgotten and brought it to me along with fresh flowers at work. he even made sure the flowers had eucalyptus to calm me down.

3. he heard on the radio (i think) that unplugging things saves money and ran around the house "saving money." except that i couldn't get anything to come on...but i admire his responsibility.

4. he made the bed yesterday without me asking him.

5. he helped me give max a bath last night at 7.30. didn't even question it.

6. he refuses to watch tv shows that i like until i come home. even if there's nothing else on.

7. without asking, he got an estimate on having someone clean the house and then offered to rearrange our budget to make it happen.

isn't he wonderful? i truly don't deserve him.

to make up for the lack of pictures

i'm terrible at posting photos. really. i don't have the patience for it. but today, i am taking a day off, so i'm at home. and, although i really need to clean the bathroom, i thought i'd post some 2009 photos. also, our little boy loves to play with the camera. and somehow, we haven't been able to get our photos looking quite right since he came. bless his heart....

this is dennis at his first American job. that's right, folks.

he flipped his way through may, june and july of 2009.

i don't think i ever blogged about matilda. i had this dream where we adopted another schnauzer. and my good husband humored me and let me talk to the schnauzer rescue group. and they introduced us to matilda. as you can see, the only one happy in this situation was me. not even matilda was very happy. so she went back to live with her rescue mom and we came to know that we are officially a one-dog-family. for now.

i just love this. dennis and dad are grilling out in the rain. dennis is the official umbrella holder and jon is wearing my crocs.

the last time nana and pops came to visit, nana and i were enjoying our first cup of coffee as (we thought) the only ones awake. i happened to glance out the front window. and this is what i saw. he's painting the house. hilarious.

this is dennis and me in the nashville airport, waiting to board the plane to mexico.

poor kid is already a pro at the one-armed self portrait shots.

this is jon "dancing" in senor frog's in cancun. yes, that sign is pointing to me.

there. i feel better. once i start looking through our photos, i always resolve to pull out the camera more often. but i've always been in the "if you're present in the moment, you'll remember the memory much better" camp of photo-taking. too bad my memory's not so great these days.

Tah-key Day

Okay folks, you can officially have a heart attack.

Two Merryman blogs in one day!

But I just had to blog about another experience from my day - cause it's funny. :)

At least, I think so... I'm not as great a writer as Emily, but here goes...

So... NSA, Dennis's arts magnet, is crazy. In so many ways. It's a great school but ever since they opted out of standard school attire allowing their students to wear saggy pants and trench coats - I have to admit I've stopped trusting their decision making abilities.

So NSA is having spirit week. No sports teams. They're going to cheer at their art work. Which I'm cool with. What I'm a little not cool with is "Gender Switch" day. Really? Is that still okay? Because in an art school full of children wrestling with gender confusion already I feel like dress like the opposite sex day is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. We aren't doing these kids any favors by saying - just try this stuff on - it's fun! You'll like it! YAY Spirit Week!

Okay, so you know where I stand on that... :) So Dennis tells me the days... School Color Day (I have no idea what those are because you don't have cheers at games to teach you - probably black and black - emo kids...sheesh...), Pajama Day - (oh Lord, from what I see when I drop Dennis off, this one is going to be a disaster, too.) Then there is Decade Day - you can pick any decade. Chaos - I'm way to theme-y for that... (but I did hear dennis say he thinks he'll wear socks pulled up and his smallest soccer shorts. I told him he'd need Emily's opinion on how to dress like the 80's - knowing she would have just the right way of saying - little shorts show your business - lets keep that covered!) And finally Tah-key day.

So, then I say - "Dennis, what is Tah-key day?" He says - "You know, where people dress Tah-key." So I think (as I often have to - what would this sound like with a bright A sound? Oh, right TACKY Day!) So, without thinking I say... "Why do you need a day for that - it's like every day at NSA - why don't you do something totally wild and dress in standard school attire for old times sake!" (no response - just a look like - "oh, dad...")

So, a few days have gone by, and even after the ridiculous ride to school this morning that Emily wrote about, and me wanting to just open the door in front of the Nolensville Road Salvation Army and say - you're so smart, why don't you find your way to school... he asks as we pull up to school... "Is tah-key offensive?" I say... "Not really, it's not like saying a bad word or calling someone a name." He says, "Okay, good." I obviously have to inquire why he asked... :) He says... "Well, I was making posters after school to get everyone to dress for Spirit Week (good little student council-er like his dad) and I was drawing images on the posters to help visual learners. (He probably heard that from me, Lord...) I drew like man and woman symbols on gender switch and pajama pants for pajama day... and for tah-key day I just wrote NSA.

OML (that's oh - my - Lord!) Jesus help me! So I said... "Oh, Dennis that is kind of offensive!" He asks why. :) I say - "Well, saying someone's outfit is tacky is like saying they're an idiot because they couldn't match their clothes. " "Oh, oh no." he says... :) So I say, "Yeah - it's like saying - look - all of you are stupid and can't dress! YAY! Dress like that today!" (which I pretty much believe but should have never alluded too in front of him - I'm learning to be a dad of a teenager at 31.)

Dennis, dear Dennis says: "But when you get ready to leave the house Emily tells you your clothes look tah-key." I laughed hard on the inside and said... "That doesn't make it kind! Emily does her best to keep me from looking like a fool and dressing tah-key - but you shouldn't tell your whole school that - that's why they have mamas! (even though these mamas must be blind or have no control over their children...)

So he said he was going to go to run to Ms. Miranda, his student government sponsor, and see if he could change it. :) (And don't worry, I did let him know that the appropriate thing to draw was someone in stripes AND plaids, or something like that.)

Why can't they just have Crazy Hat Day like we did! (Man I wore that Goofy hat with the buck teeth from Disney world every year like a champ) :) Or bring back Backwards Day -- remember Kris Kross? :)

So tonight as I get ready to make a pot of chili for my family, I'm thankful that...

1. Dennis is learning, slowly, to say A like cat, hat, and tacky.

2. Dennis is opting out of Gender Switch Day. (cause, student council member or not, I wouldn't let him out of the house even if he wanted to participate)

3. Ms. Miranda hadn't hung the posters up yet.

4. Emily keeps me from looking afright.

chili. hell's kitchen. sleep. :)

have mercy...

our little d will be driving soon. very soon. although not as soon as he thinks if he keeps THIS up.

in TN, you have to have 180 days of "practice" before they'll let you have a license even if you're 16.

as usual, we're down to the wire. his 180 days will be up next month, and we haven't let him practice as much as we probably should have. we live in a pretty bustling area, and quite frankly, we're usually running late to wherever we're going and it's usually my fault. and if we're late, then i probably CANNOT HANDLE a teenager driving which would inevitably make us later. it makes my teeth itch. really.

so this week, jon has taken on the responsibility of letting dennis drive to school. he's a trooper...i do not deserve his husbandness.

only dennis is acting progressively stinkier as the week wears on. take note: it is tuesday. you'd have to get jon to tell you exactly, since i wasn't present, but their conversation this morning went something like this:

DENNIS
"i think you're wondering how i know to stop the car."

JON
"um, i would hope you're watching the car in front of you to see when they brake."

DENNIS
"no. i like to look far in the distance. i can see the brakes of cars far ahead of me in the reflection on the pavement."
please note: it has been raining for 39 days here. God hasn't broken his promise yet, but he's getting awfully close.

JON
"well, that's not safe. you really need to watch the car in front of you, since that's the one you'll hit first. if you DO happen to hit the car in front of you, it will cost you at least $2500 to fix."

DENNIS
"it doesn't help me drive better when you try to scare me like that. and i think looking in front of you or looking far ahead of you is a matter of opinion."

You see, to teenagers, they are ALWAYS RIGHT. so if you say something that's different from what they believe, it becomes "your opinion." PLUS, we don't have any point of reference on this whole thing. by this point, most parents have worked through several milestones with their child. nope. not us. this is it.

HOWEVER. i wonder if driving isn't the worst thing that could happen at this point. i'm giving you a BONUS STORY!

last week, jon had to work a conference downtown. dennis has to ride the metro bus to jon's office normally in the afternoons, and that bus goes to the downtown "hub" first. so jon (without asking me) decided that it would be a great idea if dennis just got off the bus at the downtown hub so jon could meet him without having to pick him up south of town.

my husband. he is funny. he decided that it would FANtastic to give dennis the GPS from his car, pre-programmed with the conference's address. then, dennis could just get off the bus, turn the GPS on and then walk the three or four blocks to meet jon.

y'all. my little orphan son was walking through downtown with a GPS. i'm pretty sure it would be on an episode of perfect strangers if it were on today. only i wouldn't do the dance of joy. nope. i'm pretty sure someone reported us to DHS.

he DID make it safely to jon...even checked in, got a name badge and found jon. we really have no need to worry about him. it's us you've gotta worry about.

i'm concerned

when i was little, i always knew my mother's "sound" when someone died. someone famous...not someone we actually knew. for some reason, the one that most clearly stands out was when Red Skelton died. i'm fairly sure i remember her shedding a tear and moaning, "awwww...red skelton died." and then she or my daddy would launch into a story about said dead person. if they were a big deal, the stories could get lengthy. if it was a little-known-dead-person, there wouldn't be a story. just a qualifier. like, "oh, so-and-so died. they starred in this show i watched when i was seven."

i remember thinking: i will know i am old when i know the folks that die.

so...when we were in cancun, john hughes died. i will always remember that death as the one where i thought, "awww...john hughes died. insert qualifier." i felt old. i learned how to be a teenager at the hand of molly ringwald...who was at the at hand of john hughes.

and michael jackson (i think that happened first, but for some reason, john hughes's death touched me more. maybe the lack of drama.)

and ted kennedy.

i found out about jack-o's death on facebook.

and tonight, i found out that patrick swayze died on facebook, too.

weird to think that my kids will not be hanging out around the tv when they announce someone dies. they'll probably update me on the deaths of the icons that shaped my child-and-early-adulthood.

i'm finally at the age when i grieve over icons. and i'm living in the age when the nightly news is not where....wicky, wicky, wicky...you hear it...first.

i'll get used to it. i'm sure it's just where we are. but i've gotta tell you...after someone really cool like patrick swayze dies and you hear it on facebook...you're a little scared to log on. just a little.

hearteningly, i found out about teddy kennedy's death on the today show. i am so thankful for matt and meredith...meredith, in this case. they break death to you like a good friend would...with respect for your family and the families of all involved. no 140-character posts to hide behind. in fact, matt and meredith don't hesitate to spend a couple of hours breaking the news.

....pause....

i'm watching kanye west on leno. i'm uncomfortable. maybe live is not a good idea. maybe artists should be edited.

i am sad for kanye. i don't think he's completely crazy. only a little.

good job, jay...it takes a seasoned interviewer to save that.

...and...action....

matt and meredith, after their two hours of breaking the news, they get to hand the torch to ann curry who does at least two dateline specials on the departed.

i think i prefer the nbc way of breaking the news. it helps you move through. when facebook breaks it, you kind of move on. i miss my emotions.

i've got this weird hang-up.

hello, blog-world. i've missed you. you've helped me identify a serious issue that i have. the longer i put off something, the harder it is to do. it's this weird paradox that i can't quite figure out. but i've learned that sometimes you just have to take the bull by the horns.

my last post was in june. june was about the time that i was transitioning into events at my job. i was hired to do internal communications and then our company reduced our events and communications teams. no one really told me to take over events. another thing i've learned about myself recently is that i pretty much just "do." if it needs to be done, i just learn and adapt until i can complete it. so, more than being told i needed to "do" events, i just sort of absorbed it. and i love it. but it also has taken so much more of me than i thought it would.

so in the beginning of my newly-self-created position, i thought: wow. i shouldn't blog tonight. i should work. and if i'm not working, i should be hanging with my family. because my hours are long and even when i'm not at work, i'm still at work. and so, i'd skip blogging.

also, when we started blogging, sometimes i would sneak in a good post at work. only now, there's no time for sneaking. again, that curious guilt thing would creep in and say: i've got something really great to share with my little blogspace. only if i were more dedicated to my craft, i wouldn't blog at work, i'd be researching the proper number of chairs for the next big event. that way i could do work at work and then go home and do home at home. that would be great. so i'd skip blogging.

and then, this funny thing happened. i got used to working events and communications and things started coming to me during work hours, and i even took off the little blackberry holster i would sometimes wear to bed (kidding). so it would seem that i would have time to blog. but i would look at this pretty computer and think: now it would be so stupid to blog because i've neglected it so long. i wouldn't even know where to start. and people would know that i'm wishy-washy and can't keep up anything for a long period of time. and they already think i'm not dedicated because i can't daily post like you're supposed to when you commit to this blog-thing. i am a failure...ho, hum and woe is me. and i would skip blogging.

but today, my husband is napping. and my son is listening to some crazy moldovan or celtic music upstairs while painting and my dog is looking out the window. and i have no excuse.

who am i kidding? anyone who reads this post probably has just as many kooky hang-ups as i do, plus they have little kids and much more complicated lives and jobs than i do. really, this blog is for me. it's for me to practice writing so that one day i will be good enough to press print and someone will pay me for the way i string words and place commas or not. also it's for us to connect with people who care about us and who we care for as well so that we have a jumping-off place when we sit down on the patio to visit with you.

to further make my point about this curious guilt that overtakes me: i've been married for about 4 and 1/2 years. when we were wed, people loved us well. gifts came in by the boat-load. we were blessed beyond measure and well-prepared to start our life together. in the beginning of the engagement/gifting period, i wrote thank you notes promptly. there was something so thrilling about putting pen to paper that said "jon and emily."

i continued to do really well until about the month before the wedding. those of you who are married know that this is the time when most showers are thrown, but also, you're down to the wire with wedding planning and house-buying and dress-fittings. and writing thank-you notes is something you just sort of work in to the mix. and i got them all written.

and then jon and i got married and moved into our new house. there was a box-full of notes that i wrote when we were at our old house that i didn't address. this was before google was really good at finding people. it was a safer time, but also a more difficult time to just get things done. in the midst of the move, the box of notes without addresses got packed, but never sent.

about 6 months ago (or so), jon and i rearranged our bedroom. there, underneath a dresser, was the box. when i saw it, i got all queasy. this meant that people that wanted to bless us had gone without that most primal of satisfactions - the satisfaction of being appreciated. i resolved to mail them off to their rightful addresses.

only every time i go to grab that box and do what is right, i can't even touch it. because if i sent the notes now, people would think: wow. 5 years is a long time. i don't even remember what i bought them...did they even mean the thanks behind the note? and so i skip the post office.

as i write this, i know the right thing to do. and by posting it, i have admitted to the whole world that i have a problem. and i can admit to you...hopefully without fear of rejection...that i will mail those notes next weekend. period. i will buy a box of bigger envelopes and put a note in them that tells this story and slap a new stamp on them. and hope that the federal government is more timely than i am.

that feels so, so good. it's not action, but it's the promise thereof and it is good.

so, here i am, mr. blogger. i've missed you. can we talk again tomorrow? oh, you're right. it'll probably be a couple of days.

The Bloodys and The Creeps

So it's been awhile since we've posted a blog - partly because our lives have been so insanely busy this summer and, well, that's probably the reason. I'm sure you're busy, too - so nothing new there...

We've had a great summer - ending in a fantastic vacation in Cancun... there are so many stories to share but I'll let Emily share those when she gets a moment - she' s a way better blogger than I am.

So what transpired on the way to school this morning made me laugh out loud - literally. Dennis doesn't really know why, I'm sure, but I laughed hard. :) Apparently with all the craziness going on in our lives and me having two late work nights in a row for orphans and Emily having a crazy busy week at Opryland, Dennis had some free time to watch History Channel. Now, we debate whether this is okay, but at least its not MTV or something way, way worse. Occasionally he'll see some story on there or the Discovery Channel that says Noah never had an ark or the Bible isn't really true and when he starts to beleive it I tell him - when in doubt, the Bible wins. :) God wrote it and he knows more than the tv. :) But thanks to our internet monitoring we know he's not watching or looking at anything shady - just downloading Celtic music like a mad man. And yes, he says Sell-tick every time even though we tell him it sounds like a K. I want to be upset that he isn't downloading american music to help make him more American, but then there aren't cuss words and booty music with the Celtics. Lord, lord... :)

So we're in the car this morning on the way to NSA (Dennis's arts magnet) and he says... "Do you know there are gangs in Nashville?" I say - "Yes, of course, why do you ask?" So he says... "Well, I saw a big special on History Channel about gangs yesterday. They are bad!" He continues... "First they talked about the "Creeps" in Los Angeles and do you know they just kill people just to prove they are man and to get into the creeps?" (minor laughter at creeps here while I say) - "Crips... like chicken strips." (we have to find rhyming words to get him to realize how to say vowels and he knows I love a good chicken strip.) So he says crips, and we move on - and as usual, the creeps return.

"So these "Creeps" - they broke into this house and killed this mom while she was having her coffee. Just having her coffee! Then killed all her kids except one who was hiding in the closet. If that was me I'd just want to die too," he says. Okay - now I think, counseling is a good idea, but just say, "Uh, huh - that's aweful!" (As I try to listen to traffic and weather together on the Fish in the background - he only tells stories when I'm hoping to hear the traffic on the way to school and work.)

"And there are the "bloodys" -- They're bad, too!" He says. :) (muffled laughter from me - I didn't correct this one - it was too funny.) Then he says, concerning the bloodys, "Can you imagine how stupid these people are! Just stupid! They shot two girls in their car just cause they thought they were the ones that called the police about a drug deal. But it wasn't them! All they knew was the one who told on them was in a red car. Can you imagine how many red cars are in Los Angeles? I mean look - there are two in front of us and we're in Nashville! Then they came back a few days later and killed one of the girl's little brothers playing in front of his house." I was trying to listen intently as the traffic report blazed by and I couldn't distinguish it as Dennis talked louder about the "bloodys." This was the kicker though. Dennis says, "Crazy white people are just maniacs - they don't hang out in groups!" I was in shock. I told him I was going to save that quote and put it somewhere to make me laugh and he says, "Don't put that somewhere, someone will think you're racist." I thought about telling him that I wasn't the one that said it so there were no worries there. But I had to share it with you this morning becuase all of it was just way too funny.

He also informed me that he had seen some of the places in Nashville where they showed the gangs but he couldn't quite figure out how close they were. I told him they might be in our backyard and he better look out. He looked terrified and then laughed it off. But I knew he was slightly concerned. He said that he had seen the club that was on tv one time. I asked - "When did you go clubbing?" He said, "I think we've driven by it." You know, we're always in the club district. :) I informed him that if he couldn't control his worry about things he saw on the History Channel I'd cut that channel off, too. (To save money we recently cut off 100 channels and he was traumatized.) He said that this wasn't scary stuff - this was reality. Hilarious.

So as you're out and about today, look out for random "bloodys" and "creeps" that may be out to get you and just shoot you to show that they are man. I know Dennis will be on the lookout, too. :)

happy endings...and such.

follow up to previous post: the painters finished on FRIDAY. that's 4 days. i'm not going to say it was hellacious...but maybe. after the toilet incident, there was the floor fixer.

the floor fixer put two...count them: two floor gashes (mwah ha ha) at a length of 6 inches in floorboards that were previously untouched by aforesaid flood. and covered them with a MAGIC MARKER. but thankfully he fixed it and the 6 inch holes in the wall and everything. and it's pretty. 

tonight is jon and kate plus eight. and i will be watching. whether i have to commandeer the tv in the living room or be relegated to the bedroom. because really...i need to know that they can work through their issues. 

dennis went to work today with a friend who cleans houses. dennis took one look at the house-to-be-cleaned's playroom which was, to say the least, a disaster, and said, "oh. i don't think jon and emily should have kids. they would not like this at ALL."

i have managed to project my obsessive compulsive tendencies on my son. 

score.

"they just don't speak of it."

so...if y'all go back HERE, you can read the story of memorial day '08. i like to (lovingly) refer to that day as "the BEGINNING OF THE END." really. our house flooded...and that began the ugly cycle of flood, more flood, new floors (literally to' up from the flo' up), sick puppy, puppy funeral, cancer numero uno, papa surgery, cancer numero dos, chemo 1-f (f is for father...or whatever else), chemo 1 - m, radiation 1 - m, chemo 2 - f. my sister likes to throw in her wedding...but technically that happened before the Great Flood, so it is null and void, however happy it might have been.

so. yesterday was totally uneventful - thankfully! i literally sat on the sofa almost all day except for the time when i was (1) marinating chicken for dinner and (2) picking paint colors and (3) watching the jon & kate plus eight marathon.

which brings me to today.

the painters came. and they were a.mazing. i can't even publish the price because it was so cheap. but...lord have mercy. apparently, a paint can went on top of the cabinet in the master bedroom "potty closet." why anyone would put a can of paint on a cabinet in a potty closet is beyond me. 

but my favorite part of the day? jon's account of the conversation he had with the head painter immediately following. "uh, sir...i'm really sorry, but we made a mistake and put a paint can on top of the cabinet in your master bath and it crashed down on your toilet and broke it into a million little pieces." 

jon: "oh."

head painter: "do you have any idea how we might re-hang the cabinet?"

jon: "um, no...you see, sir...i'm not really handy. that's why i'm paying you to paint my house."

head painter: "oh. so...before we finish painting the house, we'll go ahead and fix that."

jon: "that would be great."

so, then jon gets the brilliant idea that we should just buy a new throne for the potty closet...in the long run, it's better for the painters...on account of they don't have to buy a new tank. and couldn't we use an upgrade? so...after a dinner of homemade jalapeno crabcakes, the whole family trekked off to lowe's.

after finding the most beautiful toilet ever (with a matching tissue holder), we came home to figure out that the hardwoods in the hall were warping. again. 

y'all. this better be the prettiest. paint. job. ever. 

because i can't take much more. really, i can't. i promise i'll post pictures of the results...because our bedroom? our bedroom is sharkey gray. as in martha's decorator-genius kevin sharkey gray. and it is oh, so pretty. not sure if it's worth the drama.

i apologized to dennis for being the most dramatic family ever. and he said, "i'm sure everyone has this drama, they just don't speak of it."

nope.

because i'm itching to post

i just felt the need to write. this has been a long week...not for any good reason. just long. having a big girl's job isn't all it's cracked up to be. sometimes it's kind of hard. 

and sometimes, you really don't have a whole lot left for your family. time...i can find time. but somehow...i just want to hit the pillow and pray for a good dream when i find that time. i think i realized that i'm in too deep when i didn't want to cook.

i love to cook...more than most any other hobby. and last night i almost called pizza hut on the way home. i didn't, because according to jon, one of the things that dennis loves most about being an american is being able to eat the food that i cook. and that makes me boundlessly happy, so i figured pleasing dennis is better than just giving up. and anyway, i always get a break on fridays on account of family mexican.

but anyway...

jon and i are off on an exciting birthday jaunt this weekend. to atlanta. only we won't be shopping in posh shops or searching out rap stars. nope...we'll be screaming our heads off on the roller coasters at 6 flags. i do love my crazy husband. i did make him promise an ikea trip...and that i could drive so that we could bring back any furniture :)

hope you all have wonderful weekends.

tagged...again

i was tagged by the inimitable hannah.

first, i'm going to talk about hannah. hannah's like a leather sofa. you're pretty sure that you're not lucky enough to have one. and then you get one. and it only gets better the longer you have it. only with hannah, unlike the sofa, she speaks. and what comes out of her mouth is usually funny, sometimes poignant, and always bare naked.

here are the instructions for "eight things":
. mention the person that tagged you
. complete the list of eight things
. tag eight of your wonderful blogger friends
. go tell them you tagged them

eight things i look forward to:

1. dennis learning to drive. this means a stepping stone for him...a grocery-getter for me;

2. our trip to cancun in august...sort of;

3. having a baby some day. really. i'm almost there;

4. my parents being well;

5. going to heaven.

6. writing a book. i will do it...someday.

7. figuring out exactly what i want to be when i grow up

8. buying this new bedding from pottery barn.

eight things i did yesterday:

1. volunteered to host a cocktail party for my entire office.

2. genuinely missed my husband.

3. read a couple of pages of the mermaid chair...for the third time.

4. cried over melissa's post.

5. played wii boxing...and did 10 squats every time i k.o.'d someone. and super hula-hooped.

6. drafted swine flu memos

7. was really thankful in a sordid sort of way when my son fell asleep during the president's speech. and i didn't wake him up. i then proceeded to watch american idol instead of lost. and cheered for kris allen when he stayed.

8. wished the swine flu would go away (reference #2 above).

eight things i wish i could do:

1. fly. seriously.

2. live in arkadelphia, but keep my job.

3. convince jon that he is the best ever at what he does...both at home and at work.

4. host flawless parties every night of the week. with nothing to clean up. in a dress. with pearls. and heels.

5. find a community group.

6. work out 5 days a week and not whine about it. OR just magically lose 50 pounds.

7. have raised my son since birth. only i'm pretty sure he wouldn't have turned out as well.

8. turn my house by about 90 degrees so i'd have morning sunlight flood through the house. only then i'd be facing the neighbor's house. that would be bad. so i guess in my next house, i'll make sure that there's morning light.

eight shows i watch:

1. desperate housewives

2. grey's anatomy

3. 24

4. the office

5. medium

6. jon and kate plus 8

7. every show on the food network. marathon-like every saturday and most sundays.

8. all the CSIs

i tag: jessica, laura haywood, kristen black, dayle carozza, and heather wolfe. i have no idea who's even reading this any more!

parental updates

it's been awhile since i've posted about the cancer. i think in some way, i was hoping it would just disappear.

my dad completed the 6-month round of chemo initially prescribed. he got the results of the follow-up PET scan today. and the news, well...the news was good. it wasn't what my dad wanted to hear, but it really was good.

so, initially, his oncologist told my parents there were "multiple lesions," to me, meaning numerous...too many to count. and when he got his halfway checkup, the lesions were "20% percent reduced...some as many as 50% reduced." this, to me, means that he had a. lot. of. tumors.

and today, he and my mom heard that he has 4 tumors. 2 of them could be cut out today. and 2 of them have not quite shrunk enough. since that halfway checkup, one of the tumors has gone from 7 centimeters to 6.

y'all. that is a BIG tumor. possibly TWO BIG TUMORS.

there is no way my dad should have made it this long. his liver was just plum eat up with lesions. but my Almighty Father, the Great Physician, saw fit to spare him. to shrink those nasty tumors. and put doctors in our life that know just what to do for him.

not only did those tumors shrink and all but disappear, but the CANCER HAS NOT SPREAD.

y'all. merciful days. the cancer that so easily spreads...the liver is practically a conduit for cancer. spreads cancer like cheerleaders throw candy in the christmas parade. and that cancer is contained. praise the Lord.

please join me in lifting up praise to our God for sparing my daddy thus far. for shrinking those tumors. for knitting our family together. and for teaching us all that He truly does know the plans he has for us...no matter what that entails.

so we've got six more months of chemo - 12 treatments. the other good news is that the doc released him back to work. i truly believe that will be good for him, too...being able to have a reason to get out of the bed and into the shower and into the car. it's a different drug, and i sure couldn't tell you the name of it. but i can tell you that he is NOT excited about the chemo. it pretty much just makes him feel like crap. but i'm not going to pray that it doesn't make him feel bad. basically, you're pumping poison in your body to kill the foreign stuff. and that's not supposed to feel good.

and please lift up a little prayer, that this new chemo drug will shrink those last two tumors to a managable size, so that we can whack them out of him ASAP. i'm ready to NOT count white cells.

vocabulary monday

this evening at dinner, jon and i learned a new word. not really a word...an acronym. dennis is usually pretty quiet at dinner. there's usually something on tv worth watching (i know, i'm a bad mom for allowing tv during dinner, but really, we sit down and have dinner together almost every night. how many families really do that? we'll work on no tv with the next one...right.)

so dennis hollers, "oy tay! you will never believe what happened today at school." and we waited. he said, "this girl, she made a strange sound from a strange place." and i got nervous, because that sounded a little shady. 

and then he said, "t.o.l."

pregnant pause.

"she tooted out loud."

and i almost shot cilantro out my nose. seriously.

easter and giving back

along with the excitement of dennis's car, i also made a giant easter dinner. i even remembered to document the feast: ginger-aled ham, orange and cumin-scented carrots, smashed potatoes and deviled eggs. i was pretty proud of myself...it was fairly pretty, too.

this weekend, i took a group of STARS (opryland employees) to volunteer at the country music marathon. we served water to several thousand runners at mile marker 23. it was REALLY hard work. things i learned this weekend: (1) i need to workout. seriously, at one point i thought my heart was going to give out. and today i am 17 different kinds of sore. (2) there are some very selfless people in the world. i wish i had a picture, but there was a handicapped gentleman in a wheelchair whose brother was pushing...PUSHING him through the marathon. i started crying right there. i sat down on the asphalt and just cried. then there were the team-in-training folks. the ones that run to raise money for cancer. and they had ribbons tacked to their shirts...in memory of...in honor of... again, tears fell freely. i am so thankful that there are people in the world who will use the simple (though painful) act of running a marathon to raise money to cure this awful disease. 

also: mixing sports drinks is gross. here's a shot of me and my boss. i work for the coolest company ever.

interlude

when i order sushi, i always ask for two sets of chopsticks, so the tiny japanese lady will think that i'm going to share all that raw fish.

i don't ever share that bag of goodness, for the record.

today, when i did this, the tiny japanese lady...snorted. i think she's on to me.

new beginnings

i concur with many of my fellow bloggers. i adore easter. for some reason this year, easter seemed to mean more to me than usual. don't get me wrong. i was raised in church and among believers, and know that the easter bunny has his place, but it most certainly is NOT in the Bible. but this year, jon and i have ALMOST found a new church. and this new church does church very well. not just on sunday or saturday, but all the time.

i went to good friday service on my way into work on friday. the service involved a congregational reading where the congregation read the words of the crowd that sentenced jesus to death. i have never felt more humbled...we're talking low, low to the ground...when i said, "crucify him! his blood is on me and my children's head!" it really brought home the idea that it was for me...and all my low-down dirty sins...that an innocent man died. as much as i wish i was mary magdalene or the woman who poured oil on christ's head...i was the crowd. the crowd that begged pilate to release a criminal instead of the innocent son of God. so easter meant more this year. 

also. i could not spend it with my parents in arkansas. my mom was not feeling up to hostessing. she is not "coming off" her radiation as well as one might think, and quite frankly is feeling pretty crummy. this hurts my heart. please pray that her body continues to heal; that her spirits will be positive as she "recovers." she goes again for chemo tomorrow. chemo weeks are not fabulous weeks for her, so pray that for all the suffering she must endure that that chemo is wiping out the remaining cancerous cells. i am ready for this season in my family to be over, but for all we are going through, i have to think that it is to pray harder for the cure...that we all might be done with this nightmare that affects so many.

ok. that all seemed heavy. on a lighter note:

jon, dennis and i celebrated easter on saturday. i've posted before about how much i adore saturday services. but in addition to service, we hid eggs for dennis this year:

 

And we made him hunt for them:

And Max looked on (this one is a little indulgent):

And in the last egg was a key:

And the key was for his easter gift:

And the gift looked a little like this on the outside:

there might not be a better feeling than the feeling of providing for your children. it's a little tangled up in "ohmygoodnessihopethisisn'tthemachinethattakeshislife," but it's still pretty powerful. 

now we just have to teach him to drive. scary? definitely. 

as days go by...

i am just terrible at blogging. it's just like many things in my life...healthy eating, exercising, not cursing, that i decide to do and then shortly thereafter, i fall off the wagon. i know i should document this crazy life for a couple of reasons. (1) so that i'll remember what REALLY happened and (2) so that other people can figure out what's going on with us. and also: i really do love it. it's nice to "get it all out." so, here are a few short stories to catch up:

a. hangin' tough.

jon took me to the new kids on the block concert for my birthday. my THIRTIETH birthday. it was great, and even though i was a number 1 debbie gibson fan during that era, i still knew all the words, and was even pleasantly surprised. i don't think they were lip-syncing. however, i left with the knowledge that i've aged well. or at least, i've learned to cover up what body flaws come with being thirty. seriously, i turned around when the boys sang hangin' tough and there was this sea of flabby arms waving in the air. i had worn a tasteful jacket so that no one would be exposed to that "extra" bit of skin. my counterparts in crime were wearing sleeveless little numbers and quite frankly a bit of modesty was called for. oh, well...they all had fun, i had fun, even jon had fun, and he was pretty jet-lagged from returning from moldova the NIGHT BEFORE. how great a husband is he?

b. the week without jon

i never posted follow up on this week. oh, did dennis and i bond! dennis decided to just ask about a million questions that i shouldn't have had to field alone. he was just incensed by the american red cross and wanted to donate blood at school - only he's 16 and needed parental consent. nice. and also, he decided that he wanted to go to prom with his (then) girlfriend and who should pay? oh, my. who would have thought that i would be pulling out emily post at this point, right?

c. the break-up.

we had to counsel dennis through the first break up. he broke up with (or vice-versa) afore-said girlfriend. who then proceeded to tell him that she MIGHT still want to go to prom with him. there are not words for this in mommy-speak. really. i saw red for days, i tell you. but after we explained to big d that prom was, like, the most expensive night EVER for a boy under 18, he pretty much told her that he was uninterested. NICE. here's how the conversation went:

"you know, you're going to have to buy her flowers."

"how much is that?"

"probably about $50." 

"can you delete the flowers?"

*snickers* "no."

great, huh?

d. the visit from the principal.

big d's principal from his  moldovan orphanage is in america for a visit. we got to see her on our soil, instead of the other way around, and it was nice. it was also awfully nice of her to explain to our little darlin that he had a pretty great life in america, and that even on his worst day, life in america was pretty sweet and way easier than life in moldova. sometimes it helps to have perspective - when you have evil parents that *gasp* make you keep your room clean.

e. our visit to miami:

here's a snapshot of jon and me on our way out to dinner. notice how relaxed! we took a long weekend to miami and had just the best time. we laid on the beach and got lost in coconut grove. we had fancy italian dinner that went on for DAYS (or at least a couple of hours). we had really fancy breakfast at the delano hotel and then noticed that rihanna had been sitting right beside us. but the coolest thing? my dear husband  called ahead and had an arrangement waiting for me when we got to our hotel room:

 

great, right? Those are yellow calla lillies, just like i carried in our wedding four years prior. undoubtedly the best husband ever. 

unrelated, but still.

so, as i said before...i'm home alone (save for my teenage son...who would relish the thought of kicking the snot out of an intruder). which is one thing. and it's practically summer. like it started at 60, and got to 70. which is another.

i got two phone calls in 5 minutes. from my neighbors. at 8:45ish. telling me that my garage door was open. really? 

when does being neighborly stop and being annoying start?

day one of “jon’s in moldova again.”

i've cleaned the house...dennis has cleaned his room. he's watching tbs which means more jim carrey than i'd like, but hey, he's quiet. we just had lunch. me: turkey & spinach sandwich. him: leftover pasta with...tomato soup on top. what? he said it was good.

we've started to go to saturday night church and i have to tell you...it's wonderful. it's like having two saturday mornings. 

when i was little, we always went to church. i remember skipping once...when i had the CHICKEN POX. that's about all that would get you pardoned from sunday school. well, my dad let me in on the best show ever -- sunday morning on cbs. he'd kind of taunt us with it. it would start and then it was off to church. 

as i've gotten older...the one thing i love, love, love is being able to catch sunday morning. i don't dvr it. it's a great show, but it really must be watched on sunday morning. it reminds me of a connection with my dad, who, truth be told, back then would have rather stayed home to watch it. i don't condone missing church...usually. it's just now, i get to go to church and see sunday morning. with coffee. with max. while my teenager's still asleep.

so this morning was really great. barbie and pelican island. and a commentary from ben stein. you probably remember him from ferris bueller's day off. remember? bueller....bueller...bueller?

below, i'm going to do the unpardonable and NOT link. i'm pasting the entirety of his commentary. please read it all. i've been shouting this inwardly for the past month, and it was both vindicating and inspiring to hear it spoken. enjoy. and then go shopping, please.

Okay. Let me put on my weather-beaten economist's hat again and try to explain something important. 

As we all know, we are in a recession that is bad and getting worse. So, basic question: How do we get out of it?

Well, look at it this way. The economy grows because of two factors: M, which is the quantity of money in the economy, which is controlled mostly by the Federal Reserve; and V, the velocity of money, or the rate at which it changes hands - or, as one might say, the speed with which it is borrowed, invested and spent.

Mr. Ben Bernanke, head of the Federal Reserve, has been doing a fine job of keeping the supply of money pumped up. Score one for him.

But the velocity of money has slowed dramatically. 

People at every level are afraid to spend because they fear conditions will get worse and they're going to need the money in the future just to survive. So they don't spend it.

One of the big contributors to fear is the big goombahs in the society saying how bad things are. When Mr. Obama or his economists tell us how terrible things are and how they're going to get worse, they're shooting fear into the economic bloodstream and that hurts velocity and kills stocks.

Notice that recently Ben Bernanke said the recession might end this year, and the stock market rocketed up that day.

What we need, as Bill Clinton aptly pointed out recently, is more cheerleading and less fear-mongering. We elected Mr. Obama to be the National Spirit Leader, not National Scary Storyteller. 

If Mr. Obama and Mr. Geithner, his Treasury Secretary, and Mr. Volcker, his well-respected advisor, and some real superstars like Warren Buffett and Jack Welch came out and said, "The recession will end within 12 months. We are sure of it," the recession WOULD end in 12 months.

It's all about confidence and the confidence of heavy-hitters means a lot.

After all, no one is bombing our cities right now or poisoning our rivers. This whole thing is about confidence. Ninety-two percent of us are still employed. Roughly 90+ percent are not behind on our mortgages. If we had some confidence, we could get this ball rolling again.

Let's roll!

updates & creativity

i realize it's been awhile since my last post...and that my last post wasn't one at all. it's been a busy time at the merryman house...sort of.

a few updates: my mom is hanging out with her radiologist today. she starts a pretty rigorous radiation schedule on monday, as well as a 6-month stint with chemo. i'm sure it's going to be fine, and that this terrible monster will exit my mom as soon as he sees all the weapons we're throwing at him.

my dad went for his "halfway" exam. the lesions in his liver are shrinking...praise the Lord! he is healthy as a horse...he really does look a thousand times better than he did 6 months ago. the treatment is a' working...and none too soon.

in other news...i don't normally have a whole bunch of time to read, but i do it any way. one of the best books i've read in the last two years was eat, pray, love, by elizabeth gilbert. she's amazing.

this month, TED is hosting a big ole conference...one that i'd kill to go to, but alas, killing wouldn't make money spring up from the ground to get me there. elizabeth presented a talk there. i know that most of us don't have 20 minutes, but if you have any creative persuasion "in you," please click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA to see it. if you absolutely don't have time, go to the 15:30 mark and hear her out. the synopsis is that (1) creativity is taxing on your emotions, but that (2) we have to work hard to manage the emotion that comes with it and (3) regardless of whether your work will be labeled "genius," sometimes you gotta let it out on the off chance that you might let a little bit of divinity out into the world. powerful.

additionally, my beloved has been working on ways to manage our expenses given the state of our economy. bless him. i am proud to say that over the past week, the hubs has saved us about $1200 (!) a year! seriously, he has called the cable people and bundled our services and changed our alarm company and called the insurance people. he even threatened to sell his (really cool) car to buy two mazdas. this was where i had to tell him to slow his roll, but i had to admire his tenacity.

finally, our son has been invited to his first prom as a friend. to which he said, "maybe i will wait until she finds someone she likes and then she will ask him." i said, "when a girl gets up the guts to ask you to the prom, she's pretty set on you taking her." and he said, "maybe. maybe not." bless him little heart. darn tootin' you'll get some pictures posted on that one. can't wait.

tagged in photo fun

my friend hannah tagged me...and i thought this would be fun. so, here's what you do:

1. go to your 4th folder where you store your photos.

2. select the 4th photo (no exceptions).

3. post the picture with an explanation and link it back to your tagger.

4. tag 4 people do do the same.

this is a table arrangement I did three Christmases ago for a women's holiday event at our (then) church. i (as a children's pastor's wife) was asked to do a "segment" on decorating for the holidays. so I introduced the women of Rolling Hills to no napkin rings. note that this is not at our home. meaning I toted my crystal tea glasses and two (count them) sets of forks to do this. and i threw in a little shout out to martha and made place cards that could be taken home as gifts. if only i had that time these days. 

what you don't see is the children's table arrangement on the other side. i toted butcher paper and jumbo crayons and put little paper napkins in tiny paper sacks for their setting. and i even put little luminaries as the centerpiece with fake tealights so that the kids wouldn't burn themselves. i was SO good back then. 

i tag: Dayle, Rebecca, Jessica and Mom.

just for fun this time.

jon made the decision to take our son on an outing last weekend to see mall cop. i was dubious from the start, and, as usual, my instincts were correct and it was truly a terrible flick. it had that quality that poor tyler perry is guilty of...the one where you try to mix a lesson into something that should really just be for laughs.

anyway, this post wasn't supposed to be a review, but there's a scene in the movie where paul blart (a painfully large kevin james) puts a cassette tape into his boom box and jams. i leaned over to jon and said: i think i had that same stereo. and he said: me too.

it got me thinking: kids these days have no idea. do you remember what it was like to have to search for songs using the rewind and fast forward? and if you held it down halfway, you could hear the teeny mousey music that made it easier to figure out when the song was over? how great was it when you caught the whole song from the radio and were able to add it to your mix tape without the deejay speaking before it was over? and you couldn't hear the latest song by just flipping on your laptop or flicking through your iPhone. you had to get that puppy at the wal-mart or one of those creepy music shops at the hot springs mall. and use the afore-mentioned finding methods to get to the song on the radio, because it was never, ever the first song. there was no best buy or really even target. if you didn't have enough baby-sitting money saved up, you had to buy the single. for me, that meant "blame it on the rain." and the B side had "dance with the devil." which i wasn't allowed to listen to, because no one should EVER think about waltzing with satan.

i'm sure one could make the argument that our brains are freed up by being able to skip around to whatever song we want with a couple of button clicks. that we can accomplish more by being able to save a trip to the store by downloading the latest from iTunes. but i kind of miss the intentional nature of the cassette tape. you had to be committed to find what you wanted. more people could benefit from this, i think.

whatever.

fyi...jon was on whatever with alexis and jennifer tonight re: plane crashes. i'll post a link tomorrow, but according to him, he called in when they started talking about "the miracle" plane crash in nyc. and he got right on. and he was able to tell the story of his plane crash almost TEN YEARS ago (we are so old). 

we are HUGE fans of alexis and jennifer. not only did he get to talk to them (i am GREEN with envy), but he got to spread some Jesus while he was at it. 

i married the coolest man on earth. siriusly. HA.

drip...drip...drip...

after the great flood of '08 (see earlier posts if you're curious), jon and i joined a plumbing club. not a club for plumbers, but a club where you pay a certain fee each month and twice a year, the plumbers check all your pipes and if something goes wrong, they basically pay for it.

so we were due on friday for our second 6 month check. the plumber...JUSTIN...came in (at 10:01...we had been told it was an 8 - 10 window) and told us that everything was great...except we need a new garbage disposal (this is legitimate), and all FOUR of our toilets needed to be "rebuilt." basically, because the tank bolts (trust me, i have a whole vocabulary you don't even want to touch re: plumbing) were rusting. according to JUSTIN (picture it in script), our homebuilder decided to use "eljer" toilets which come with steel bolts -- not brass -- from the factory, and the stupid builder decided to install them with the steel bolts. imagine. 

anyway, he told us that once you got in there to replace the bolts, you might as well go ahead and gut the whole thing and rebuild the inside. to the tune of...wait for it....$260 PER TOILET. the math alone makes my head hurt. i've been to lowe's enough to know that this is greater than the price of a brand new porcelain throne. please.

side bar: i grew up with one bathroom. jon calls me a "bathroom refugee." when we decided to buy a new home, my first priority was bathrooms. LOTS of bathrooms. with multiple potties and multiple sinks. so many that if one clogged, we could just play musical loos for years. so this house has four...count them...four potties. and i love it. 

anyway. i played the girl card (i call it another term...named after a girlie part, but i've promised to keep this thing PG), and told JUSTIN-in-script that i'd have to talk it over with my husband...being as the tab was approaching the $1500 mark. he fed me some line about how he just couldn't tell how long we had before all four of them started leaking. keep in mind that for three years prior to dennis's arrival, we have only used one pottie consistently. now we only use two consistently. something. was not adding up.

and i began my internet search. have you heard of expert village? they are amazing. they give you videos of ANYTHING you need. including removing and replacing tank bolts. 

so...jon and i...the same couple who used to spend saturdays whiling away hours in pottery barn...spent the whole saturday replacing tank bolts. it took four tries (before we got it right on the first pottie), but we did it. we saved about a grand, in my estimation, even though we lost four hours of life in the process. lost is relative, because anytime we fix something, we learn something new about our relationship. to wit: jon is sometimes right. sometimes. 

but i can't wait until tomorrow, when i get to call JUSTIN-in-script and tell him that for the low low price of $250 each, i'll fix all the toilets he's found "wrong" all over town. maybe we can be partners in suckering people.